Reboot From Start
by Tyger and Darkdracofire
Summary: A week ago, everything had been normal. Or maybe it hadn't. Roxas isn't so sure, anymore.


For IJ's roads_diverged - theme #3, canon what-if

A week ago, Roxas had known exactly where he was going in life.

Well, okay, not _exactly_. He didn't know what he wanted to do after he graduated - his parents were going to insist he went to uni, of course, but for _what_? - and he didn't know all the little details. But yeah, he had the general idea. He'd known what was what, and life had been good. Solid. A week ago, everything had been normal.

Or maybe it hadn't. He's not so sure, anymore.

-

It had, unsurprisingly, started with the photo incident. Which had been weird. Really weird. And freaky and what was _up_ with the white jumpsuit guys, or that giant key, and Seifer had been a total bastard - not that _that_ was unusual - and yeah. It hadn't been a great day.

But they would have got over it. Remembered it in a year or two, and laughed about it. It would always be a weird thing, but they just happened, everyone once in a while. Everyone had a weird story from their younger days, right?

Only things hadn't got back to normal, afterwards, like they should have.

-

Okay, well, the pickpocket thing. That could've been normal. Hayner, Pence and Olette had been excited, right. So they'd just not noticed the weird guy. In a black coat. With a hood.

In the middle of summer.

...yeah, sure.

But still. It could have happened. Not really likely, but possible.

Right?

-

Then, the next day. Time had _frozen_. And he's _sure_ he's not making that up - he'd never even _dreamed_ something like that could happen. And given his dreams, that's saying a lot.

Naminé... she was weird. Made his skin crawl in a _nonowrong_ sort of way.

Then more of the weird jumpsuit guys had showed up, and Seifer's lot had been there and the stained-glass and the giant _thing_ and his memory went a bit funny, for a while.

Truth? What truth? Knowing he didn't know something... he really wanted to punch someone.

-

As far as hitting things went, the Struggle tournament was a pretty good opportunity. Even if it had, like everything else in his life these days, taken a leap into the weird and psychotic.

Not at first. It had been normal, at first. He'd beaten Hayner - the back of his mind had added 'of course', but he pushed it aside; arrogance was unbecoming - and he'd sat with his friends, and they'd talked and laughed like normal.

Then Vivi had beaten Seifer.

Well, not 'beaten' really. 'Destroyed', more like. And that, really, had been it. The day was yet another Weird and Disturbing one. Fourth day in a row.

It didn't stop Roxas from freaking out, but _really_. It was getting a bit much.

And he was up against Vivi next. Normally, that wouldn't bother him. Vivi was small, and slow, and weak. Normally. But after what had happened to Seifer...

Then time had stopped. Again. And Vivi had turned into one of the weird jumpsuit guys. And the giant key had reappeared.

Then the weird guy had shown up.

He'd never seen the man before in his life, he knew that just like he knew that Pence was the best skateboarder in town, that Olette collected comic books, that Hayner had been friends with Seifer, once; that the best place in the entire world was on top of the station tower, and that if you were really sneaky about it, you could climb out of his bedroom window, and walk across the rooftops until you got to a trapdoor that opened up into the vacant building above the Usual Spot.

He knew it. But even so, his heart ached when he saw him, and though his mind kept screaming _you don't know him!_ so loudly he felt like screaming himself, there was something else there, too. It wasn't until things had calmed down, until he was back in his room brooding about it, afterwards, that he figured out what that something was.

_I don't know you. (But I_ could_. I'd like to.)_

_-_

Later that evening, he fell off the station tower.

No one remembered it the next day.

-

Then it had been they day they did their homework on Twilight Town's Seven Wonders. The less that was said of that _entire day_ the better.

Well, maybe not the first bit. Even though they didn't act it (even though they didn't remember last night), his friends knew something was up. They were just as clueless as him about it, but they even got _Seifer_ to help, despite everything. That had been. Just... yeah. Yeah. It had been just like that.

For maybe ten minutes, everything had been right, in Roxas' world again. Not _normal_, but right.

Then Olette had made them work on their homework, and Pence had suggested the Seven Wonders, and everything had fallen into itty bitty pieces again.

The first six had been bad enough. Even though they'd been so _obviously_ weird (well, except for the one about the steps, anyway), no one had seen anything. Not even when the train had been _right there_.

Then he'd met Naminé again, and. And. He was best friends with _Axel_? That (_you've never met him before!_) wasn't right. And then she'd said. She'd said.

How could she _say_ that? How _could_ she?

He didn't sleep at all, that night.

-

He gets up early. No point continuing to lie there.

Only a week ago, he thinks, my life was so normal. So ordinary.

Maybe. Maybe not. It's looking increasingly like not, and he has no idea what to think about that.

-

He meets Axel on the way to the Usual Spot. He's just standing there, leaning against a wall, looking up at the sky. (Loitering, Seifer would call it, and Roxas is glad he's not here right now. Seifer might be a bastard, but... But what?)

When Roxas is almost opposite the guy, he pauses. Axel looks down, and grins. "Hey," he says. And Roxas didn't sleep last night, and hasn't slept well in the last he doesn't know _how_ long, so he just. Asks.

"Are we best friends?"

"Of course," says Axel, then "wait, you remember?" His grin is so _thrilled_, and it's so _tempting_ to let him believe it, even for a second longer. Not that he knows the guy, but it's nice to see him happy. But it wouldn't be right. And it wouldn't be _true_. And Roxas thinks that the most important thing _has_ to be being told the truth - why would not knowing it hurt so much, otherwise?

"No," he says, shaking his head. Axel looks _crushed_. "That's just what she said," he adds, but Axel's not listening.

"Then why would you _say_ something like that?" he asks, hands flying about wildly, and Roxas almost takes a step back, looks for something to defend himself with - but the guy doesn't look like he's going to try and hurt him. Or at least not yet. He just looks... _agitated_. Hurt. It makes Roxas' heart ache, though he still doesn't know why.

He reaches out, and grabs one flailing arm. He feels Axel go dead still at that, and can't quite bear to look at him.

"Look," he says. "I don't remember you, and I don't know, maybe I should, everything's been so weird lately and I don't know what's going on at all, and I think everything's going to shit right now, but." He pauses, looks Axel in the eyes, and he's lost and confused, and he has no idea why, but he kind of feels like crying. "But... there's still the future, right?" he says.

Axel looks down at him, face unreadable.

"Yeah," he says, eventually, covering Roxas' hand with his own, giving him the weakest, realest smile he's seen in his entire life, "yeah, there is."


End file.
